Camouflaging Silicone Robot

A silicone “soft” robot which is being developed for DARPA by researchers at Harvard is capable of crawling and adapting to its environment by changing its color. The robot looks organic and crawls like some weird, creepy animal.

Currently the robot is controlled and supplied by a mechanism that is attached to it to inflate and deflate, making it walk. A sensor which is found below the robot is able of figuring out the color of what’s around it and send the data back so that it can be used to mix the colors and fill the robot with pigment so that it can match its surroundings.

This robot, which is being developed for the military will be used mainly to get behind enemy lines. It’s practically undetectable since it has the ability to change color, shape and temperature, which is useful to avoid thermal scans.